Lakefield is a village in Selwyn Township, about a 15-minute drive north of Peterborough and roughly 90 minutes from Toronto. It sits on the Trent-Severn Waterway between the Otonabee River and Katchewanooka Lake, a location that earned it the nickname the Gateway to Kawartha Cottage Country.
The village itself has a well-kept historic downtown with local shops and restaurants, a farmers’ market, and a full-service marina offering transient and seasonal dockage. The Lakefield Trail runs along the water and gives residents an easy way to take in the shoreline on foot.
Lakefield’s literary past runs deep. Canadian writers Margaret Laurence, Catherine Parr Traill, and Susanna Moodie all lived in Lakefield, and the annual Lakefield Literary Festival keeps that tradition going. Lakefield College School, a private day and boarding school on a 155-acre waterfront campus, has been part of the community since 1879. The calendar stays full year-round with the Jazz Art & Craft Festival, the Agricultural Fair, and winter’s PolarFest.
For buyers, the mix is varied. Character homes sit near downtown within walking distance of the shops and the marina. Waterfront properties come up along the Otonabee River and Katchewanooka Lake. In the surrounding Selwyn countryside you’ll find family homes on larger rural lots, where buyers should expect well and septic and plan for a winter’s worth of driveway and road upkeep.
Nearby: Peterborough is 15 minutes south; Stoney Lake and Burleigh Falls are a short run north; Apsley lies up Highway 28 toward Bancroft, which is roughly an hour north via Apsley.
If you’re weighing Lakefield against the rest of cottage country, it helps to have someone local walking the ground with you. Wade Kovacic, Sales Representative with CENTURY 21 Granite Realty Group Inc., Brokerage, works with buyers across the region from Bancroft through the Kawarthas. Reach out when you’re ready to start looking.
